Chapter 4. Using the iTunes Music Store

IN THIS CHAPTER:

About Digital Rights Management Technology

Sign Up for the iTunes Music Store

Browse the iTunes Music Store

Purchase a Song, Album, Video, or Audiobook from the iTunes Music Store

Purchase Music Using a Shopping Cart

Check for Purchased Music or Videos

Authorize a Computer to Play Purchased Music

Find More Music by Artists in Your iTunes Library

Publish a Playlist as an iMix

Give Gift Music to Someone Else

Redeem Gift Music, a Gift Certificate, or an iTunes Music Card

Create an iTunes Music Store Allowance

Request Music from the iTunes Music Store

Watch for Newly Added Music Using an RSS Feed

Tell a Friend About an Album in the iTunes Music Store

Create a Web Link to Your Favorite Music for Sale

Now that we're all used to buying our books online from Amazon.com, participating in auctions online on eBay.com, and even getting all our news and entertainment online, it seems silly that in the age of digital music, when song files can be transmitted more easily from computer to computer than albums carried from the record store to our house, we should still be limited to buying physical CDs when we want to add to our record collections.

Well, with the iTunes Music Store, all that has changed. At the time of this writing, the iTunes Music Store has sold more than 1 billion songs to customers on both the Mac and Windows platforms, at a pace that continues to climb daily as more and more people discover iTunes and the selection of music that grows by hundreds of albums every week, in addition to the rapidly expanding selection of video content such as TV shows, music videos, and short films. Priced at a constant 99 cents per track, $9.99 per album, or $1.99 per video, and offering customers the ability to buy just their favorite tracks instead of whole albums, iTunes offers a value that's hard for competitors to undercut and easy for the big record labels to like. With the built-in Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology in protected AAC and MPEG-4 files, customers get the flexibility they need and true ownership of the music they buy, and the labels get the assurance that they're not just giving out freely distributable digital songs at a dollar a pop. After all, the record companies also have to make a profit if digital music is to become a mainstream medium to supplant CDs.

The iTunes Music Store is designed to be as intuitive to use as iTunes is; but that doesn't mean it's completely without its quirks or hidden features. With the tasks in this chapter, you should become fully familiar with how the iTunes Music Store works, how to take advantage of its lesser-known features, and how to get the most bang for your buck as you build your iTunes Library through the fastest-growing legal means of music delivery on Earth.